Rudd gets poll trigger

The Rudd government has obtained its first clear trigger to call a double dissolution election after its plan to raise the Medicare levy surcharge for high-income earners was yesterday voted down in the Senate.

The bill, which is part of the government’s broader plan to means test the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate, was defeated after Family First senator Steve Fielding and independent senator Nick Xenophon sided with the opposition to vote against it.

Because the same bill was previously rejected by the Senate more than three months ago, yesterday’s vote hands the government a constitutional trigger to call a double dissolution election.

The vote came a day after the government announced health insurance premiums would rise 5.78 per cent this year.

Senator Fielding, who claimed the means test would have unfairly hurt larger families, said the government should call an early election on the issue.

“The Rudd government has broken an election promise not to cut the health insurance rebate and I think the Australian public won’t be as forgiving as the Prime Minister thinks," he said.

“I think the government will be punished at the ballot box for over-promising and underdelivering on health."

NIB
chief executive
Mark Fitzgibbon
said the rejection of the federal government’s plan to increase the Medicare levy surcharge would not have a material impact on NIB.

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“Our assessment is that the impact would have been moderate. We understand the government’s argument in terms of social justice, but we struggle to reconcile that with their position that Medicare shouldn’t be means tested," he said.

The government had aimed to achieve $1.8 billion in savings over four years by progressively phasing out the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate, starting at annual income thresholds of $75,000 for singles and $150,000 for families.

The vote came as the government continues its strategy to shift political debate away from climate change and towards health, ahead of Mr Rudd’s expected announcement next month of his long-awaited plan to reform the health care system.

The Senate yesterday voted to delay a vote on the government’s emissions trading legislation until May, in a move that confirms Mr Rudd is unlikely to rely on that bill to obtain a double dissolution trigger.